Crunchy ‘Nanas

“7 Seconds” was my first experience of Youssou N’Dour*. Besides simply being a good song, I remember thinking how different it was– a song in a foreign language (at least partly) playing on the radio, the video airing on MTV and VH1. It wasn’t just the language, but the way those words sounded coming from his mouth. There’s something about his voice, the way the syllables roll, the way everything vibrates (”there’s a million voices”) that just got—and hooked—me.

Fourteen years later, I got to see him live. It was awesome. He was playing with his band le Super Etoile de Dakar last night at the indigO2 in London. He has such a personable, charismatic presence on stage, and really interacts with the audience. And the rhythms are great. I didn’t want to stop dancing. That’s 2+ hours of cross training in my book! (It was a wonderfully long set.)

Before the show, I was saying “you know, this concert’s a little different. I don’t have specific songs I want to hear, I just want to hear the music.” I lied. I just didn’t know it. I was such a happy bunny when they played C’est L’amour. It was great, all of it.

[*But wait, those of you who have read my blog for longer than a day, may say! What about the Peter Gabriel So tour? Shaking the Tree? I was 8 in 1986. The only music I was tuned into was Madonna, Michael Jackson, and the Beatles (because of my mom). I discovered Peter Gabriel much later. Though not, I have to point out to one loyal reader in particular, because of the movie “Say Anything.”]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2nd April 2008 at  16:06 and is filed under Crunchy grooves. You can follow responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.